Material-handling apparatus



Jan, 116, 11923, 1 442521 A. F. CASE. MATERIAL HANDLING APPARATUS. Fl LED MAR. 31 I921 4 SHEETS'SHEET 1 HAAZEZZI Jan, 116, 11923.

A. F. CASE. MATERIAL HANDLING APPARATUS,

4 SHEETSSHEET 2 FILED MAR 31, T921.

Wm M Jam], 16, 11923.

A. F. CASE.

MATERIAL HANDLING APPARATUS. FILED MAR. 31. 1921 4 SHEETS-SHEET 3 17 Jan. 116, 1923.

' A; F. CASE. MATERIAL HANDLING APPARATUS.

LED MAR. 31 192] 4 SHEETS'SHEET 4 Patented Jan. 16, ll23l UNHTEfi ShTES earamr oF-Fnceo ARTHUR F. CASE, OF C1 IEVIEJLAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE WELLIIZAN-SEAVER- MORGAN COMPANY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

MATERIAL-HANDLING APPARATUS.

Application filed March 31, 1921. Serial No. 457,243.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARTHUR F CAsE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and 5 State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Material Handling Apparatus, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The present invention rela'testo material handling apparatus, and has particular reference to boat loading apparatus of the type wherein material such as coal is conveyed or otherwise caused to travel outwardly along aboom or equivalent member to a downwardly'extending collapsible chute adapted to be extended intothe hatch of a boat; and

to be provided at its lower end with a triinthe edge of a loading pier in which case $4) the material is generally delivered to the conveyor of the boom from a hopper in. which the material is dumped from a car, such as a transfer car, movable along the pier on an upper level.

In boat loading apparatus of the type referred to above, the chute which is adapted to be extended into the hatch of the boat and which carries the trimmer is generally-- collapsible, or otherwise constructed so that 40 the delivery end can be raised and lowered", and it is pivoted on the boom or other men1-' ber supporting it so that it can be tilted not only for the purpose of peirmitting ma'-" terial to be distributed uniformly about the hatch, but in order that the material'pass ing down the chute will more or less slide down along the rear wall, this being desired in order that the material may be most of fectively divertedat the trimmer and discharged laterally therefrom.

Generally the chute is pivoted on an axis so that it may be swung inwardly and out the raising and lowering of the chute' are accomplished by means of cables connected to the lower end of the chute, and passing about motor driven drums supported on the boom or equivalent device from which the chute is hung.

The principal object of the present in vention is to reduce thenumber of motors and to simplify the mechanical and electrical apparatus utilizedin swinging or shifting the chute in the directions and for the purpose stated above.

The invention may be briefly summarized as consisting in certain novel combinations and arrangements of parts and details of construction which will be described in the specification and set forth in the appended claims.

In the accompanying sheets of drawings wherein I have shown an embodiment of the invention which operates very efiectively, Fig. 1 shows a tower movable along the edge of a pier, and having delivery and trimming apparatus with which my invention is incorporated; Figs. 2 and 3 are views showing in-side elevation the outer end of the boom with the delivery chute swung inwardly in Fig. 2, and swung outwardly in Fig. 3; Fig. 4 is a similar view, showing the chute in vertical position, and by dotted lines showing it collapsed; Fig. 5 is a view looking toward the outer end of the boom, but showing the chute flexed or bent laterally, by full lines in one direction,'and by dotted lines in the opposite direction; Fig. 6 is a side view of the outer end of the boom, showing the chute collapsed and swung upwardly in substantial parallelism with the boom;

Fig. 7 is aplan View ofa trolley which. is

mounted on the boom and carrying apparatus utilized in giving the chute the various motions depicted, inthe preceding fig ures; Fig. 8 is a sectional yiew substantially along the line 8- -8 of Fig. 7 and Fig. 9

is a sectional View substantially along the line 99 of Fig. 7 looking in the direction indicated by the arrows.

Referring now to the drawings, 10 represents a boom or arm adapted to be extended out from a suitable support over a boat to be loaded. The material to be loaded into the boat is conveyed or otherwise moved 'out along the boom to adelivery chute 11 which is hinged or pivoted at 12 to the outer portion of the boom to swing on a horizontal axis inwardly and outwardly from the vertical position. This chute which is adapted to be extended down into the hatch of the boat as already stated, is in this instance composed of telescopic sections so that it can be collapsed or extended as desired.

At the lower end of the delivery chute is a trimmer by which the material is adapted to be distributed about the hatch of the boat.

In this case a rotary trimmer 13 is con-.

templated, adapted to be rotated about the axis of the chute, and provided with an elbow 14 by which the material passing down the chute is diverted laterally, and provided also with a swinging delivery member 15 which carries a distributing belt 16 adapted to be driven by a motor carried by the trimmer, but not shown. As the invention does not reside in the details of the trimmer, further explanation thereof is be- 'lieved to be unnecessary.

The boom or arm 10 may be of any suitable construction, and the material may be conveyed or moved along the boom in different Ways, but in this instance the boom is provided with a conveyor indicated at 17, the outer end of the conveyor being just above the chute 11, as shown in the draw.- ings. The boom or arm may be in the form of an inclined pan or chute along which the material passes by gravity, but the member 10 will be hereinafter referred to as aboom which may or may not be provided with a conveyor to positively move the material outwardly to the chute 11.

The boom may be suported on a stationary structure such as a car dumper frame, or on a movable structure such as the frame 18 of a tower which I have shown in Fig. 1, for the purpose of illustrating one of' the several kinds of apparatus withwhich the invention has utility. The tower" 18 is in this instance movable along the lower part of a pier indicated at 19, and alongside of which a boat 20 to be loaded is positioned.

The boom may be connected to the tower or other support in different ways, but is always capable of being swung up and down,

hoisting mechanism 21 being shown for that' purpose.

The manner in which material is delivered to the boom, will, of course, depend upon the type of machine with which the boom is used, but in this instance the material is adapted to be delivered onto the conveyor 17 of the boom by a chute ,or equivalent member 22 carried by the tower and adapted toreceive material fromthe delivery end or spout 24 of a hopper 25 carried by the upper structure 26 of the pier. A car is adapted to be moved out along the pier, and to dump material-into the hopper 25,,a number of which will be provided along the upright structure so that the tower can receive coal from any of them, depending upon its position on the pier.

The parts so far described are more or less common in this art, and need not be further referred to except in explaining the location, structure and purpose of the parts more directly involving my invention.

As already stated, the present invention resides in the improved mechanism for extending and colla-psingthe chute, for swinging the chute from vertical position in wardly, as shown in Fig. 2, outwardly, as shown in Fig. 3, and for bending the chute laterally in either direction from vertical position as shown in Fig." 5, and for otherwise shifting the chute, as for example, to the position shown in Fig. 6, should it be desirable to move the chute to the position there shown, as for.example, to clear the riggingof a boat to be loaded.

A series of cables have heretofore, and by the present invention are utilized for shifting or moving the chute, but heretofore the apparatus for winding in or paying out the cables was mounted in fixed position on 100 the outer portion of the boom, and in any installation having provision for swinging the chute inwardly and outwardly, and also flexing it laterally, four motors and four separate drums have heretofore been em- 105 ployed.

In accordance with the present invention, the mechanism for shifting the chute is mounted on a trolley 27, most clearly shown in Figs. 7 and 8. This trolley is provided with wheels 28, and in this instance is adapted to travel along the'rails 29 and 30 carried by the outer portion of the boom 10. The rails 30 are guard rails located above the ralls 29, and the wheels 28 have double flanges so that the trolley will be held onto the boom between the upper and lower rails, regardless of the position to whic the boom may be swung. On this trolley two motors ing pinions 34 adapted to engage racks, 35

carried by the boom inside the rails 29, as best shown in Fig. 8. The motor shaft may be provided with a brake 36 which may be an electric brake for the purpose of quickly stopping the motor, though a bra-king action 30 is not required to hold the trolley in any given position on-the boom since the selflocking worm gearing serves this purpose.

The second motor carried by the trolley is shown at 37, the purpose of this motor being to drive simultaneously or separately,

two rope drums 38 and 39, supported on opposite sides of the center line of the trolley, as shown in Figs. 7' and 8. The motor shaft is connected by flexible couplings indicated conventionally at 40, to a .pair of shafts 41, each of which is adapted to be clutched by any suitable clutch mechanismindicated at 42, such, for example, as a magnetic clutch, to a sleeve'43 (see Fig. 9) car-v rying a brake, indicated conventionally at 44, and a pinion 45, as clearly shown in Figs. 7 and 9. The pinions 45 engage gears 46 on countershafts 47 provided with pinions 48 engaging gears 49- on the shafts of the two drums 38 and 39. It will be seen from the mechanism so "far described, that the trolley as a whole can be moved along the boom in either direction by the motor 31, and that both drums 38 and 39 can be simultaneously driven by the motor 37 or either can be driven independently of the other and in either direction (the motors 31 and 37 being, ofcourse, reversing motors) by selectively operating the clutches 42 and the brakes I In Fig. 9 I have shown conventionally a standard type of magnetic clutch-42, the main part 42*, which is keyed to the shaft 41, carrying an energizing winding 42", and the armature 42 being carried. by the sleeve 43, and being adapted to be magnetically attracted, and therefore clutched to the body 42 of the clutch when the body is energized. Any suitable type of brake 44 may be utilized, but the details of the brake T have not shown as they form no part of the present invention, but-in practice I prefer to use anyf-ofthe well known magnetic brakes adapted to'be set by a spring and released by a magnetic winding which can beenergized and de-energized at the same time that such winding 42 is energized and deenergized.

Referring now to Figs. 2m 6, it will be seen that the chute is swung inwardly and outwardly, and tilted or flexed laterally, and it is extended or collapsed by four cables in two sets, one set of two cables, designated 50 and 51 being connected to one side of the lower partof the chute, and adapted to be wound onto and unwound from thedruin' 38. and the other two similar cables (not shown, except in Fig. 5,where the cable designated 51 and corresponding to the in allfour cables.

then outwardly around deflecting sheaves 53, 54 and 55 carried by the boom; then downwardly and around a sheave 56 carried by the lowermost section of the chute 11, then upwardly around a deflecting sheave 57 carried by the boom, inwardly, upwardly about deflecting sheaves 58 and 59, and outwardly around drum 38, the cable passing over the upper part of the drum, as shown in 'Fig. 2. The other cable 51 is attached at 60 to the outer or forward end of the trolley, and from the latter extends forwardly to .a deflecting sheave 61 at the forward end of the boom, then downwardly around sheave 62 carried by the lowermost section of the chute 11 adjacent the sheave 56, then upwardly around a defleeting sheave 63 carried by the boom alongside the sheave 61, and then inwardly along .the boom and around the drum 38, this cables 50 and 51 are connected to the trol-- ley, pass about similar sheaves, and pass onto the drum 39 in precisely the same way as the cables 50 and 51 are connected tothe trolley and .pass around the deflecting sheaves described and arewound onto the drum 38.

The machine is operated in the following manner. If it is desired to collapse or extend the chute 11 without swinging or flexing it, the trolley. 27 is stationary. To extend the chute, i. e. to lower the trimmer, the motor is connected by the clutches 42 to both drums 38 and 39, and themotor 37 is operated to simultaneously rotate both drums so as to pay out all four cables, the brakes 44 then being released. To collapse the chute the motor is operated so as to rotate the drums in the opposite direction, and wind To swing the chute either inwardly or outwardly, the drums are not rota-ted, but the trolley is shifted inwardly or outwardly as the case may be. For example, should it be desired to swing the chute from the vertical position shown in Fig. 4, inwardly to the position shown in Fig. 2, as when it is desired that the coal be distributed in the inner part of the hatch, with both brakes 44 set, the trolley is simply moved outwardly from the position shown in Fig. 4 to-the position shown in Fig. 2. This in effect pays out the cables 51 and pulls in on the cables 50.

Likewise,'should itbe desired to swing the chute outwardly to the .position shown in Fig. 3, as when it is desired to trim the outer part of the hatch, it is simply necessary to inove the trolley by operating the motor 31 to the position shown in Fig. 3. In a similar manner, a chute can be swung outwardly substantially into alignment with the boom, as indicated "in Fig. 6, but the limits of inward and outward movement indicated by Figs. 2 and 3 indicates the range V of inward and outward swinging movement necessary to trim the inner and outer parts of the hatch.

Should it be desired to bend the chute laterally in either direction so that the major portion of the coal will pass down what is in effect the rear wall ofthe chute when the forward and rear parts of the hatch are being trimmed, as indicated in Fig. 5, it is only necessary to operate one or the other of the two drums 38 and 39 with the other held stationary so as to wind in somewhat, the cables on one side of the chute.

Thus by two drums and the trolley, and by two motors, one a trolleyreversing motor and the other a drum operating motor, all the necessary movements can be given to the delivery chute 11, and therefore the control of the chute is simplied and the number of operating parts is reduced.

I believe it is broadly new t9 control adelivery chute such as that forming a part of a boat loading apparatus through the medium of a movable trolley t0 which the controlling cables are connected and carrying the winding and unwinding mechanism for the cables, irrespective of the part on which the trolley is mounted.

While I prefer that the trolley be mounted on the boom or other part carrying the chute, and have so shown and described it in this application, it might be advisable to lighten the boom or to relieve it of the chute controlling mechanism, and to mount the trolley on the tower or supporting framework carrying the boom. In such case the cables would becarried inwardly along the boom through the medium of suitably positioned guide sheaves, and will be connected to the trolley and to the drums, substantially as herein shown.

Having described my inventioh, I claim:

1. In a material handling apparatus, a chute, a member supporting the chute and adapted to deliver material thereto, and

' means for swinging the chute laterally comprising amovable trolley, and connections between the trolley andthe chute.

2. In a material handling apparatus, a chute, a member supporting the chute and adapted to deliver material thereto, means for extending and collapsing and shifting the chute so as to move the lower part thereof laterally with respect to the upper part comprising a trolley having winding and unwinding means, and cable connections with the chute.

3. In a material handling apparatus, a

supporting structure, a boom extendingtherefrom, a chute supported by the boom and adapted to receive material therefrom, and means for controlling the chute comprising a trolley mounted on one of said parts and having suitable cable connections with the chute.

4. In a material handling apparatus, a supporting structure, a boom extending outwardly therefrom, a movable trolley mounted on one of said parts, a chute movably supported by the boom, and means mounted on the trolley and connected to the chute for extending and collapsing it, and for swinging the chute in various directions.

5. In a material handling apparatus, a chute, a member supporting the chute and adapted to deliver material thereto, and means comprising a trolley on said member for swinging the chute.

6. In a material handling apparatus, a

chute, a member supporting the chute and adapted to deliver material thereto, means comprising drums.v and cables adapted to be wound onto and from the drums and connected to the chute for extending, collapsing and shifting the chute, and means carrying the drums and movable alongsaid chute for extending and collapsing the chute, for swinging it inwardly and outwardly, and for moving the lower end of the chute laterally in either direction.

9. In a material handling apparatus, a boom, a chute pivoted to the outer portion of the boom adapted to receive material from said boom,'a trolley movable along the boom and having means for propelling the trolley along the boom and carrying cable winding and unwinding means for extending and collapsing and shifting the chute.

10. In a boat loading apparatus, a delivery boom, a chute pivoted at the outer portion of the boom and adapted to receive material from the boom, a trolley carried by the boom and movable along the same, drums carried by the trolley, and cables passing about said drums and connected to the chute.

11. In a boat loading apparatus, a delivery boom, a collapsible chute pivotally supported at the outer portion thereof and adapted to receive material from thev boom,

the lower part of the chute having a trimmer. a trolley movable along the boom. and cables connected to opposite sides of the lowermost section of the chute and operatively connected to the trolley.

12. In a boat loading apparatus, a delivery boom, a chute pivotally supported at the outer end of the boom. a trimmer at the bottom of the chute, cables for raisin; and lowering the trimmer and lower end of the chute, and for shifting the chute. and means for taking in and paying out the cables comprising a trolley, winding and unwinding mechanism connected to the cables and carried by the trolley, and means for shifting the trolley along the boom.

13. In a boat loading apparatus, a delivery boom, a telescopic chute pivotally supported at the outer portion thereof, adapted to receive material from the boom, and provided at its lower end with a trimmer, a trolley movable along the boom. cables connected to opposite sides of the lowermost portion of the chute. to the boom and to winding and unwinding mechanism carried by the trolley to cause the collapsing or extending of the chute and to swing it inwardly. outwardly or laterally.

14. In a material handling apparatus, a supporting structure, a boom extending therefrom. a chute supported by the boom and adapted to receive material therefrom. and means for controlling the chute comprising a movable trolley on the boom, and connections between the trolley and chute.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto athx my signature.

ARTHUR F. CASE. 

